Revenge From the Darkness - Part 1A Chapter by Jeffrey BelcherHe began to contemplate the concept of revenge. After all,
the past year of his life, everything that he had learned, all of the training
that he had paid for, it all culminates tonight. He was prepared; at least he
thought that he was, for anything that this night would bring. He was ready for
what would be the beginning of the revenge the thirsted for. “I am the
night.” Greg Brentford told himself as he stood in the darkness of the alley.
In his mind, he was not hiding in the shadows, he was the shadows. He knew that if someone were to look right at him,
they would not see him, he was the
shadows. Instead of being camouflaged by the darkness, he was soaking it in. It
was now part of him. He could see
the front of the alley, at the men standing there. He knew all three of them,
and he knew them well. It was amazing how much information was available on the
internet. From police files to DMV records, if you had just a little bit of
knowledge and some extra money, you could find anything. These three, though
they were very low level street dealers and not of much circumstance, they were
where it started. A car pulled
up under the streetlight, and he watched as Jerome Thomas walked up to the passenger
window. It was the same routine every time. Thomas walked to the window and
took the money, just as he was doing now. Once he had the money in hand, he
would walk away and Steve “Tiny” Williams would come to the window and hand over
the drugs. It was a simple exercise, exactly the same, every time. The third
man, Cory “Slick” Johnson was the muscle. It was strange that the smallest of
the three was considered the muscle, but based on his arrest record and his
many arrests for violent crimes and suspicion of murder, it made sense. Of the
three, he would be the quickest to pull the trigger and the first to sense
trouble. Johnson would be the first to go. Slowly, at
one with the darkness, he began to move along the wall toward the end of the
alley, to where they stood. There was no reason to rush; he had all the time in
the world. All rushing would do was cause noise or make a movement that the
three would see. At night, movement seen out of the peripheral vision of a
person was the best way to be seen. He was not going to make that mistake. It took him
the better part of an hour to make most of the distance until he was within
about 15 feet from the men. The conversation that he heard was clear, each
bragging about their latest sexual conquests. Each story was more outlandish
than the last, but he wasn’t paying attention to what they were saying, he was
waiting. At any moment the next customer could pull up, and he had to be ready. He was not
sure how long he waited, but finally a vehicle pulled up. He watched as Thomas
made his way to the window. As soon as he had the money in hand, he started to
walk backward as Williams stepped out. Johnson, just as he was every time, had
all of his attention on the car. Just as he imagined a million times, Brentford
closed the distance in a few silent steps, reached out with his left hand, covered
Johnson’s mouth, and with his right hand, jammed his knife to the hilt into the
base of his skull, severing his spinal column. The man was dead before he knew
what was happening. Quickly, but
making sure he made no sound, he pulled the now dead man back into the shadows.
In his mind, Brentford evaporated into the darkness. Just as he had played in
his head, no one had seen him. In fact, the drug exchange hadn’t even taken
place. In well
practiced movements, he placed the body on the ground so that he knew it would
only be seen when the other two were only a few steps away. The absence of the
man would lore the others into the alley, and when they saw him, they would be momentarily
distracted. That was when they would join him. After the body was set,
Brentford melted into the darkness on the other side of the alley. “Yo, Slick.”
Thomas said as he made his way to the head of the alley. “Where you at dawg?” When there
was no answer, he looked deeper into the alley. Williams quickly joined him as
he made the exchange and the car sped away. “Where he
at?” Williams asked. Thomas just shrugged as he took a step into the alley with
Williams right on his heels. The two continued to call out to the dead man,
even as they passed Brentford, standing in the shadows. “What’s
that? Thomas asked as he saw something in the darkness ahead of him. As
expected, they both squinted and leaned toward the object. Brentford was on
them at that instant. With a knife in each gloved hand, Brentford raised his
arms and struck down into the upper kidney area of each man. He knew well of
the nerve bundle in that area, and knew just how much pain even a strong poke
with a finger would cause. All that he knew was that he would never want to
experience what he knew these two men were as the blade sliced through the
nerves. Both men
went rigid and not even a gasp escaped their lips. The pain was so extreme that
their physical reaction was no reaction at all. There was no noise, no
movement, just as if their bodies had frozen and now set like stone. Not
pausing for an instant, Brentford ripped the blades free, glided forward, and
slammed them home into their backs, directly into their hearts. He then twisted
it sharply, making sure to cause as much damage as possible before he pulled
them free. The twist was not needed as the heart shredded itself as it beat
with the blade sat inside of it. And just like that, it was over. Standing
with the bodies, Brentford was surprised that he wasn’t even breathing hard,
his heart was beating normal, and it went better than he ever hoped it would.
Now however, was not the time to pause, he still had work to do. He quickly
pulled the bodies into the shadows. He once again felt himself becoming one with
the darkness, sucking it in and not simply hiding in it. Once one with the
darkness, he began searching the bodies. First was Thomas, where he pulled
bundles of money from several pockets. He also found a rusty pocket knife as
well as a beat up old revolver. He shoved everything into pockets and moved on,
there would be time to figure out what he had found later. Williams was
next. He found baggies of powder in one pocket, pills in another, and some sort
of liquid vials in another. He shoved them all into a small shoulder bag and
would worry about all of it later. He also found some money, not nearly as much
as was on Thomas, but he took it all the same. He was surprised that he didn’t
find a gun or knife on him. After a quick pat down, he moved to Johnson. Brentford
was surprised by the amount and types of weapons that he was finding. There
were several guns, semi-autos, revolvers, a MAC-10, several types of knives,
and even a few throwing stars. Brentford was glad that his leather gloves
provided protection from the blades. Those weapons too were shoved into the
shoulder bag. Within five minutes since his first move, Brentford made his way
out of the back of the alley. The shopping
cart was behind the dumpster right where he had left it. He lifted the blanket
and shoved the shoulder bag under it. Making sure it was well covered; he
switched roles from hunter to a drunken hobo pushing a cart with all of his
worldly possessions down the street. Though he was now a target, he was not a valuable
one. People, even drug dealers tended to stay away from bums, as they usually
had nothing of importance. He hoped that the disguise would hold up for the
next 6 blocks, until he made his way to his car. It took him
2 hours to get to the alley behind where he parked. Becoming one with the
darkness, he shoved the shopping cart behind another dumpster, pulling the
shoulder bag free as he did. He switched roles once again, from a slinking
homeless man into a man just walking to his car. With a brief glance, not
seeing anyone, he slid into his car, started it, and drove away. Brentford
was careful as he drove, knowing that if he were pulled over for speeding, it
would all be for nothing. He had come too far and had too much to accomplish for
it to be ended because he was too anxious to get home and discover what he had
gotten rather than take his time. Take his
time he did. It took him longer than planned to pull into his driveway. It didn’t
matter though; he had all the time in the world. He pulled into his garage and
waited until the garage door closed before he opened the car door. Pulling into his garage just before sunrise
was not suspicious. A neighbor seeing the way that he was dressed however was
very suspicious. Though he
was now in the relative safety of his home, Brentford knew that there was still
work to be done. He had set things up and was ready for it though. He opened
his door and stepped out onto the plastic tarp that was laid out. Once on the
tarp, and began pulling wads of cash from his pockets and placed everything
into the shoulder bag. Once his pockets were empty, he stripped everything off,
from his gloves to his socks. Once naked, he rolled the tarp up and shoved it
into an oversized black garbage bag. The bag then was placed into his trash
bin. Next, was the shower. In the back
of his garage, a few years ago, he had a shower installed. Tiffany had grown
tired of the tracks of mud and grass he would leave after doing the things that
he had asked her to do. At the time, he had been so annoyed by her nagging that
he installed it as to not hear her complain any more. Now, he would have given
anything to have her complain to him once again. He turned
the water on and climbed in. With the water heater so close, it was instantly
scalding. He took the brush, squirted some liquid Dial soap onto the bristles,
and began to scrub. Every inch of his body received the harsh treatment, from head
to toe. There would be no residue found if he was checked out by a forensics
team. After ten minutes, and with his skin red and raw, he was satisfied. After
quickly pulling on a pair of sweat pants he had waiting, he pulled the trash
bin out the back door and put it in the alley for the trash pickup in just a
few hours. After closing and locking the back door, it was time to discover
exactly what he had gotten from the evening’s activities. On a plastic
covered folding table, he dumped the contents of the shoulder bag out. Money,
drugs and weapons nearly covered the entire table. He separated everything,
unloaded the guns, and started to wipe them down with a lightly oiled cloth as
he disassembled them. He was prepared for finding weapons and after they were
fully wiped down, he reassembled them and put them into an airtight box. He
would hide them later; he wasn’t really concerned with them at the moment. Next were the drugs. He placed each type into
its separate container. The vials though, he was not all that sure about. He
was going to have to find out what the substance in them was. That however,
would have to wait. He then moved onto the money. In total, he had just over
$3,500. It was a good haul for a single night’s work. He wondered if his future
actions would bring in as much. With
everything in its place, it was time to get some rest. Brentford went around
and turned off all the lights and made sure that all the doors were locked. He
dragged himself up the stairs, finally feeling the drop in adrenaline. He could
not believe how tired he was. Before he could sleep though, there was one more
thing to do. Standing in
front of the dresser, he continued to look down, knowing how much pain it would
cause to just look up. He could feel his hands start to shake and the burning
feeling in his throat. The burning was growing, filling his throat as tears
began falling from his eyes. His vision blurred as he reached up and found the
lighter. He finally looked up. Though he could not really make out what he was
looking at, he could see everything in his mind. His eyes may have been closed
and tears may have been flooding down his cheeks, but in his mind, he could see
everything. There were
pictures everywhere. The mirror was completely covered, pictures in frames
covered just about the whole dresser top, and candles covered the rest of it.
Not only was he seeing every picture in his mind, but he was reliving every
memory. The pain was more than he could handle. His eyes cleared just enough
for him to light the candles. Once they were lit, the sobs began. He was
overcome with grief as the sobs took over. He collapsed to the ground and
folded into the fetal position. Within moments, the sobs gave way to the adrenaline
crash as he drifted off into his nightmares. © 2014 Jeffrey Belcher |
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Added on September 18, 2014 Last Updated on September 18, 2014 AuthorJeffrey BelcherPort Saint Lucie, FLAboutI write under the Pen Name of James M. Patrick. I have been writing for years and have a sudden thirst to actually finish things that I have started and try to finally get published. Please read and b.. more..Writing
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